Trees, Flowers and Sunlight
by precious-passenger
Summary: Set in the With No Moonlight AU. Slave!verse. Kid!Klaine. It's Blaine's birthday party and his path crosses with another boy, crying and hiding away.


**Title: Trees, Flowers and Sunlight**

**Summary: Set in the With No Moonlight AU. Slave!verse. Kid!Klaine. It's Blaine's birthday party and his path crosses with another boy, crying and hiding away.**

**A/N: This story is inspired by the wonderful story, "_With No Moonlight_", which could be found on my favorite stories tab. Any credit for this story goes to _WasteNoTime_ and I'm merely playing with her plot and Glee's characters. Also thank you for beta-ing this one-shot for me.**

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Blaine looked at his friends gathering in a circle around the park. It was his sixth birthday and he sure as hell threw a fit over celebrating it in a playground of all places, but his dad had sternly told him that he shouldn't make a big deal out of it and the invitation cards to his friends had already been sent. To tell the truth, Blaine didn't mind the place. He was secretly pleased that it wasn't as boring as he'd originally thought and there were tons of stuff to play with, in addition to a big lake to watch the tiny fishes and swans, and lots of grasses to roll around in. The problem was he didn't know half of the kids there and he could bet some of them didn't know they were there for _his _birthday, because they sure weren't acting like they knew.

Blaine had always been a polite boy, great at entertaining guests and making sure everyone had fun. But this was _his_ special day. He was turning six. He was so grown up now! But some special attention would be nice.

Take in the kid in the middle of the playground, for example, standing, _dangerously_, he might add, on the swing and swaying back and forth. He'd just met the boy, or rather, been introduced to by his caretaker slave as "Master Sebastian."

"So then, my daddy went and fought all the bad men in that scary building with a big chair and a bored looking guy with a hammer and told them that they shouldn't allow slaves who are too weak or young to work go and be treated in a normal hospital."

"First of all, Sebastian, it's not a hammer, it's a gavel, like this little guy," Wes, who was Blaine's classmate, answered dreamily, twirling his mini-gavel in his hands, "and none of us care what your daddy is doing."

Sebastian gasped dramatically. "Well, you _should_ care. If it weren't for my daddy, the slaves would be treated just like us. Can you even imagine that? If my daddy didn't stop those mean men, in a few years, the slaves would be eating the same food and sleeping in the same bed as yours, Wes. They already are voting to treat them in an animal hospital. But, according to my daddy, it would _corrupt _our future," Sebastian proudly puffed up his chest, happy to use the grown up word in his speech, even though he had no idea what it meant. He could see the fascinated face of his peers staring at him and looked expectantly for any objections.

"Well, that's just harsh," a scared looking kid in the gathered crowd gasped loudly. "Wouldn't they hurt the animals or make them wild?"

As if on cue, a loud meow interrupted the boys' argument. Some let out a tiny squeak.

"Come back, kitty," a very frightened gray-furred kitten jumped from between the trees, followed by an even more chaotic boy with a messy hair, his shirt untucked. "Come on, Snowball. I want to wash you in the lake to make you white and clean."

The pair ran towards the group standing by the swings. The cat pushed the array of carefully placed soldiers, which Wes had been teaching them to do, _something_, causing uproar in the said boy.

Blaine rolled his eyes. That had been going around since the morning. He couldn't wait to get home. He ran to the table Helena and Andrea were arranging, eager to help.

"Hey Andrea, hey Helena! Is there anything I can do to help?"

He looked eagerly at the presents, his hands itching to open them, but that wouldn't be polite. The women looked at him gazing longingly at the wrapped presents and shared a smile.

"Hello, Master Blaine. No, Sir, we've got everything covered. But thank you for your thoughtfulness."

Blaine hummed to himself. They were all so polite. He didn't know why his mother didn't like them or why Sebastian or anyone thought they would cause harm. Despite all the orders his father barked their way, they did it with no complaints. They brought him extra cookies and told him nice stories when he was alone in the house. Sometimes in the middle of the night when Blaine had a nightmare, Helena would bring him a glass of cold milk and tell him of her own children. Nothing could convince Blaine that these people_,_ _yes people_, had no soul.

He tried to help them anyway, putting the disposable paper plates and cups on the table and chatting away, making the slaves laugh and share adoring glances.

A shrill scream caught Blaine's attention and he looked around, trying to locate the source. He'd been to the park countless times and knew the place like the back of his hand. He found the cause quickly. There was a small boy crouched behind a bench, cradling his arm in his chest and whimpering. The boy wore a big shirt and pants that looked too big to fit him. Beside him, Snowball was hissing menacingly.

"Snowball! What have you done?" Blaine scolded the cat and ran towards the bench. Hunter had lots of apologies to do.

The boy flinched away from his raised voice and tried to crawl under the bench.

"Hey, no. Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt you," Blaine said, offering a smile, but the boy wouldn't look up at him.

"What's going on?"

Sebastian's voice called out, sounding scared. Blaine didn't take his eyes off the boy's face, but he could hear several footsteps behind him, no doubt followed after Sebastian.

"What do you have in here?" Sebastian circled around Blaine and stood tall in front of the crouching boy.

"Is this a stray? Answer me. Are you stray?" He poked the boy with the tip of his shoe, making the boy even more terrified, shaking his head.

"Back off, Sebastian. Can't you see he's hurt?" Blaine tried to push Sebastian away. Sebastian turned around, looking at Blaine with accusing eyes.

"It's not a he. Look at what it's wearing, Blaine."

"What are you guys doing there?" Cooper's authoritative voice calmed down the soon to be fight between Blaine and Sebastian. He was seventeen and being a brother to a seventeen year old had a lot of perks. Lots of kids started to respect Blaine and invite him to play games with them after they found out he was Coop's brother.

"Who's this little guy?" he asked when he saw the boy in the middle.

Blaine opened his mouth to answer him but Sebastian beat him to it. "It's a runaway slave. We should call the police to take it away… or we could tell my daddy, he'll know what to do."

"Oh spare us your speeches about dear daddy, Sebastian. We have enough of it at our house from our darling father," Cooper rolled his eyes, effectively silencing Sebastian's banter and all the ongoing whispers and scooped up the shivering boy in his arms.

"Hey there, kid. What are you doing here?"

The boy didn't answer, still shaking.

"Cooper, I think he's hurt," Blaine tried to interject, eager to help.

Cooper inspected the boy's hand to find a long gash on his arm, bleeding.

"Did Snowball do this to you? Stupid cat!" Cooper called out to the cat.

"No, I fell," the boy provided before looking down again. Blaine looked at him with awe. His voice was so pretty.

"Come on then, let's fix you up. Squirt, come with me."

"But it can be infected…don't touch _it_," Sebastian nagged.

From Sebastian's disgusted tone, Blaine could be certain that he wasn't talking about the wound.

"He doesn't have a tattoo on his arm, moron," Blaine spat angrily, "so, he's not a slave. And even if he was…"

"We still would've treated him," Cooper finished for him, looking proudly at his little brother.

Cooper carried the boy to the shed they stored all the stuff they needed for the birthday. He found the first aid kit and a few bandages under the balloons.

The little boy shrank in his seat when he saw the bottle of disinfectant. Blaine took his other hand in his own. "Come on. Don't pay attention to Cooper. Look at me."

He was immediately struck by a pair of deep blue eyes looking straight at his face. Blaine could feel his stomach turning as his smile was answered and launched to telling different stories that came to his mind.

"Hi," Blaine told the boy after he was done inspecting his bandaged arm.

"My mommy told me not to talk to strangers," the boy answered, a shy smile on his face.

"Oh, well, my name is…"

He put his hand on Blaine's mouth. "I'm sure your mommy told you the same. You should listen to your mommy."

Blaine stood there, thinking of a way to introduce himself or get to know him. He searched his pockets, finding a half crushed candy in the bottom of one and held it out in his hand towards the boy.

He braced himself for being rejected or laughed at or even a reply of "my mommy doesn't allow taking candies from strangers either," so he was genuinely surprised when the strange boy took the candy with a small smile on his lips. He broke the candy in half, putting the bigger half back in Blaine's hand. Blaine's smile was dazzling.

"Kurt," a loud voice called out and the boys jumped out of their peaceful bubble. "There you are. You scared the living hell out of me."

The owner of the voice was a girl about the same age as Cooper, only with blonde hair and a veryserious, terrified look on her face. And she was looking at the boy in front of Blaine, so this must be _Kurt._

Kurt could only look wide-eyed at the girl who'd gone on a nonstop rant, shaking his hands.

"We're going back this instant, now," she dragged the boy by his arm only getting to look at him more carefully when he yelped loudly when she touched the sore arm.

"Oh, honey. What happened to you?" She cooed. That moment Cooper jogged to the shed, standing beside Blaine.

"What did you do to Kurt?" the woman pointed shook her finger at Cooper, the other one grasping Kurt's bandaged arm.

"I can assure you, we didn't do anything. We found him sitting alone on the bench and…"

"And you didn't even call the security. Do you know how dangerous the park is, with the wandering slaves doing god knows what?"

"Ma'am, I assure you…"

"Do I look like a ma'am? What am I… sixty?" the girl gestured at herself and for some reason Cooper turned bright red.

"No, I never meant…I mean…"

Blaine glanced around, only to see Kurt looking worriedly at the pair arguing. He took his dangling hand, squeezing once and continued to hold it in his own when Kurt didn't seem to mind.

"My name is Cassandra…Cassie."

"Cooper Anderson…Coop?"

They both laughed at that. Then as if just noticed the pair of boys staring at them, Cooper added, "Blaine, why don't you and Kurt go. You can show him the decorations you made for your birthday party."

Blaine nodded and tugged at Kurt's hand.

"Umm, Miss July? Aren't we going to be late?"

"No, dear. We're staying a bit longer. It's Blaine's birthday after all," she giggled, looking at a flushed Cooper from under her lashes.

"Yeah, why don't you, guys, go and play? The cake would be ready soon."

Both boys nodded and Kurt allowed Blaine to lead him to the park, showing him his favorite places. It was a beautiful August afternoon, the sun warming their skin and the gentle wind ruffling their hair as they explored different locations. Blaine rolled down from the hill, Kurt refusing to join. He shook his head all the while and patted Blaine's clothes and hair to get the dust and grass out.

They sat peacefully by the lake, watching the swans swim gracefully in the water.

"So what happened to you?" Blaine asked, breaking the silence.

"Those mean boys threw me in the lake,"Kurt answered sadly. "They said I had a lot of glitter on my clothes and had to wash it off," Kurt sniffled and pulled at his sleeves. "Miss July made me change my clothes and then they made fun of me again, saying I was too small to be a boy. I wanted to go back to my house but I couldn't find out how. I got lost. But then you found me," he glanced up at Blaine, smiling in a way that made Blaine's cheeks turn red.

"I haven't seen you here," Blaine stammered, gesturing to their surroundings.

"My daddy brings me here every month. He has to take my mommy to the hospital in this city. So, we get up really early and drive to Westerville. They stay in the hospital the whole day and in the afternoon come and pick me up from the daycare," Kurt answered.

"It's time for the cake, everybody," Cooper called out excitedly.

"Come on, let's go," Blaine jumped up and down, but when Kurt didn't follow him immediately, looked at him, eyes full of questions.

"Your friends hate me," Kurt whispered.

"Oh, they don't hate you, believe me. They are scared of slaves and thought you were one."

"But I'm not a slave and I'm not scary…"

"I know," Blaine shrugged and pulled Kurt back up on his feet, heading back.

"But If I had a slave, I would order him not to bully me," Kurt said after a minute of pondering.

"If I had a slave, I would order him to come to my birthday party and not just give me gifts," Blaine said, looking far away. He was brought back by a soft touch on his shoulder.

"I'm here," Kurt provided easily.

And at that moment, it was enough.

Sebastian and some others stayed far away from the table, away from Kurt, but Blaine couldn't care less. In fact, it made him happier. But what made him even happier was Kurt's hand holding his own tightly and his high, musical voice wishing him happy birthday.

They ate the cake and Blaine opened the presents, "ooh"-ing and "aah"-ing at the appropriate times, all the while shooting looks and not so secret smiles at Kurt.

But soon it was time for them to leave.

"Happy Birthday, Blaine," Kurt whispered secretly, before hugging Blaine warmly and planting a big kiss on his cheek. He then skipped to Miss July, all the way waving at Blaine.

Cooper was sitting on the table, looking out of focus and oblivious to the party hat still on his head. Blaine stood in front of him, shaking his hand in front of his eyes, trying to break whatever spell that was on him.

"What a girl," Cooper sighed loudly and Blaine turned around, following his brother's gaze to see Kurt and Cassandra disappearing in the sunset.

"What a boy," he whispered, touching his cheek.


End file.
